The lack of hardwood opportunities for girls didn’t faze Murphy. He simply created them, establishing the Toms River Girls Basketball League and the region’s first girls’ AAU program — the Ocean County Shoreliners. Before long he was running co-ed camps and clinics, sending scores of proteges to the collegiate hardwood.

“I don’t know of anybody else in Ocean County who helped more kids get scholarships,” longtime shore-area hoops official John Sauer said. “He did it year after year.”

Lately, though, Murphy’s been hurt by some unlucky bounces. First his kidneys failed in 2015, necessitating dialysis while he waits for a transplant. Then, in January, his beloved wife Nanette was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. She was uninsured, just months away from being Medicare-eligible at 65, and astronomical bills are piling up.

“We’re in serious need of help,” the 68-year-old Murphy said.

Friends started a GoFundMe account, but they want to get the message out to a bigger audience: After decades of teaching box-outs, screens and free throws, John Murphy is trailing a formidable foe as the clock ticks down.

It’s time to give the old coach an assist.

Nanette and John Murphy(Photo: John Murphy)

An 'exceptional' instructor

Three times a week, for four hours at a clip, Murphy reports to Fresenius Kidney Care in Toms River for dialysis. Basically a machine does the work his kidneys should be doing, removing waste products from his blood and keeping his chemical levels safe.

It can be difficult to find a match for a kidney transplant, and demand is spiking as aging Baby Boomers fall into poor health. According to the NJ Sharing Network, a leading organ-procurement nonprofit, there are 3,500 New Jerseyans awaiting transplants. The wait can last as long as six years.

Murphy’s diagnosis of renal failure in 2015 hardly slowed him down. He continued to instruct kids and officiate recreation games, “even on the days he had dialysis,” Sauer said.

Hoops is in his blood. In those early days, back in the 1980s, he accessed a local parish gym so his daughters could work out. Then a few of their friends showed up. Soon he became a trainer in demand. In 1999 he opened The Main Court Basketball and Training Center in South Toms River. He also served as a varsity girls head coach at Barnegat High School and an assistant for the Toms River South girls and Toms River North boys.

By Murphy’s reckoning, he mentored 68 kids who went on to earn college scholarships and 67 who scored 1,000 points for their high school teams.

“Coach Murph’s basketball instruction is better than good. It’s exceptional,” said former Christian Brothers Academy standout Matt McMullen, who went on to play at Colgate University. “But the most important things I’ve learned from the guy have nothing to do with basketball. It’s goal-setting and how to approach goals.”

An uphill battle

Nanette and John Murphy have been together since 1992, a second marriage made in heaven — both with three daughters and a shared passion for the game. She was an equal partner in The Main Court and his pioneering grassroots work for Ocean County girls.

“She would always be by his side,” Sauer said. “It’s complete devotion, both ways.”

After Nanette’s diagnosis, Murphy handed off his instructional work to McMullen so he could tend to her full-time. The tumor was deemed inoperable. After enduring radiation and chemotherapy, Nanette is in hospice care.

“It’s just something you never expect,” Murphy said, his voice cracking above the whir of the dialysis machine. “Everything’s been a blur.”

He couldn’t even venture a guess at the tab for her treatment.

“We see the amount of some of the bills, and it’s nuts,” he said.

Over the past two months, the GoFundMe has raised $8,570. The goal is $30,000.

“I feel like I owe so much of my life to him, so watching this whole thing unfold has been tough,” McMullen said. “He’s given so much to us as a basketball community and now he’s going through this alone. I want more people to be aware of it.”

John Murphy called everyone else’s number for decades. Now the old coach is having a play called for him.

“The sheer number of folks he helped enjoy the game of basketball, it’s huge,” Sauer said. “I hope all those folks will come out of the woodwork and pay Murph back in some small way.”